Untitled
by Chocoholic Bec
Summary: Nick and Roddy farewell each other. Set at the end of The Merlin Conspiracy. Nick/Roddy, and pure saccharine sticky fluff. You have been warned!


_Disclaimer type thing:_ I don't own these characters, they belong to the great – yes, GREAT! – Diana Wynne Jones.

I'm just making a crappy story out of them. Please don't hurt me. cowers

_Author's Note type thing: _Sorry if there's OOCness or extreme-awfulness, remember this is my first story. cowers some more

_Story type thing:_

Roddy:

I couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Nick as I walked out to Mrs. Candace's car. After he'd said "I want to go with you," to Romanov, he'd been surprisingly quiet and thoughtful. He wasn't pushing at me as much, or maybe I just wasn't noticing so much.

Nick dashed outside, out of breath, with a pen tucked behind one ear, just as I got to the car. He stopped to breathe and I waited for him to say whatever he was going to say. He'd obviously just been putting the final touches to his part of the Grand Project.)

Grundo and Toby were chatting, their salamanders curled under their collars. (It was still drizzling, and that was the warmest place for them.) Dora was knitting some peculiar looking object in rainbow stripes. Grandad was still out the back tending to his dahlias. He'd race out as soon as he heard Mrs. Candace yelling at him to come say goodbye to me.

Nick finally stopped puffing and grinned at me. "Seeya," he said.

I smiled at him and he leant forward and hugged me tightly. I hugged him back, unlike the last time he'd hugged me, back on Romanov's island. Grundo and Toby were looking at us, smirking a bit.

Nick glared at them and leant forward. "Don't let that old lady work you too hard!" he said with that odd look he got sometimes. (That 'old lady' had given up yelling for Grandad to come out and was engrossed in a book.)

Grandad finally came away from his dahlias to come and see me off. He looked at my pink face and at Nick's unsure looking one, and grinned at both of us.

"Roddy, you really ought to be off now. Dora, stop _knitting _and say goodbye!" Dora put down her multi-coloured thing and waved. "Have a lovely time, dear! Don't forget to write!" she yelled, before starting to knit again. Grandad rolled his eyes and shooed Nick away. "Visit us in a month, Roddy. I'm sure Nick will want to see you!" I laughed, nodded and got into the car, although Mrs. Candace was still reading. I wondered how much Grandad knew about – well – about how I felt about Nick. He waved at me and stepped away from the car.

Nick came closer again. "Bye!" With that, he bent down and kissed me lightly on the lips.

I know I was blushing, and – though it was hard to tell because of his dark skin – I suspect Nick was blushing too.

Grundo looked at Toby once, and they both burst out laughing. Grandad scowled at them, before running back inside to 'fix the kettle.' I could hear him laughing though, even though he was about two rooms in by then. Dora looked up and smiled dreamily at us. "Is that how they say goodbye in India, dear?" Nick didn't even bother to reply, especially since Grundo and Toby were still laughing fairly hard. He shook his head, smiled at me and stepped away, waving.

Mrs. Candace finally started up the car and we drove away. I kept my face plastered to the window until I couldn't see Nick anymore. I was glad Mrs. Candace didn't like to talk when she was driving. It left me silence for my very confused thoughts.

Nick:

I finally put the final touches to my Grand Project and ran downstairs to say goodbye to Roddy. Realizing I was still holding a pen, I shoved it behind my ear and raced out.

Roddy was even better-looking now than she had been when I first saw her. She'd gotten some more sleep and wasn't nearly so tense. She was standing outside Mrs. Candace's car, wearing some new clothes – a light blue shirt and a long skirt – and she looked fantastic. My heart started beating faster, even though I'd just run down a flight of stairs. She looked at me with a small smile and I tried to get my breathing under control.

As soon as I could breathe enough to talk I grinned at her. "Seeya," I said, and hugged her. I could feel that she was uncertain what to do exactly, but hugged me back. When I let go, I noticed that she was blushing.

Maxwell Hyde walked out from the backyard with muddy fingers. "Roddy, you really ought to be off now. Dora, stop _knitting _and say goodbye!" he said. Dora waved and went back to her knitting.

Maxwell Hyde shooed me away so he could talk to Roddy. I didn't catch much, just, "visit," "month," and "Nick."

He stepped away as Roddy got into the car. He waved as Mrs. Candace put away her book. "Bye," I said. Suddenly I had a moment of 'do-this-now-or-you'll-regret-it-for-ever'. I leant forward and kissed her on the mouth. Roddy touched her mouth and blushed again. I couldn't tell what on Earth – or Blest – she was thinking.

Toby and Grundo started laughing. Maxwell Hyde said something about a kettle before running inside and laughing even harder than Grundo – and that was saying something, because Grundo was laughing so hard he was clutching at Toby for support.

Dora looked at us dreamily. "Is that how they say goodbye in India, dear?" she said to me. I shook my head at Roddy and smiled, waving. She waved back until the car turned a corner and we couldn't see each other anymore.

Maxwell Hyde came back out, still laughing. Grundo and Toby were looking at me as if they expected me to say something. Dora, in the meantime, had gone back inside to do some more knitting.

Maxwell Hyde finally stopped laughing. "Well, Nick, what have you got to say for yourself?" I looked at the ground and stammered, "Um… well, you see, er… uh…" I trailed off. Maxwell Hyde rolled his eyes. "Basically, I've been expecting something like this to happen since we talked about Roddy when we were at Romanov's place." I stared at him. Whatever answer I was expecting, this wasn't it.

"You are the only person with magical ability she knows who's her age," Grundo chipped in. Toby nodded. "Not to mention, you've jumped across universes, ridden on the back of an elephant, defeated the false Merlin, Sir James and Sybil, set the Izzies on Joel together… There's not much you two haven't done, really, is there?"

Maxwell Hyde shook his head at the two boys and shooed them inside. He bent closer. "You know, I don't think Roddy minded that much, if you're worrying about that," he said quietly. I shook my head. I wasn't really worried.

He smiled at me and shivered suddenly. "We really ought to go inside before we catch our death of cold," he said. I walked ahead of him, hoping I could start practicing magic again to get my mind back to normal.


End file.
